SINGAPORE: Tampines residents will soon have their own Town Hub
as construction for the integrated community lifestyle hub began on Sunday.

The Tampines Town Hub is the first of its kind in Singapore,
with sporting facilities, eating places, a library, recreational facilities and
clinics located under one roof.

There will also be information centres and offices such as the
town council.

The residents themselves had requested for those facilities and
services.

Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat, who is also MP for
Tampines GRC, said: “For instance in Our Singapore Conversation, engaging
Singaporeans from all walks of life to provide their input enables us to
formulate better policies and to be able to respond and engage our fellow
Singaporeans better.

“And in the case of a local town development, it is even more
important (to receive Singaporeans’ input) because the sense of ownership is
very important. We want residents to feel that this hub has been built with our
input, our ideas, our creativity.”

It's no
surprise that alarm bells are starting to ring over the huge amounts
Singaporeans are pouring into property overseas. An estimated $2 billion was
invested last year alone as local investors looked for returns in foreign
fields that promised more than the increasingly regulated market here.

Even as you
sign on the dotted line for your foreign property, nothing is necessarily
guaranteed as some Singaporean buyers have found out the hard way. Retiree Lin
Weiliang and a few other Singaporeans were all set to buy units at Kool
Residence on Bangkok's Sukhumvit Soi 39, which is in a glitzy area.

Buying a home
in Johor Baru was the beginning of a nightmare for a corporate trainer who
wants to be known only as Mr Ahmad. He is one of a group of Singaporeans who
bought double-storey terrace houses in Jalan Permata in 1998 for around
RM330,000 or more. These were 100 per cent paid up and the buyers received
vacant possession.

Lennar Corp. (LEN)agreed to buy 112 acres (45 hectares) from Union Pacific Corp. in the San FranciscoBay area city of Fremont,California, where the builder plans to construct 3,000 homes, said a person with knowledge of the deal.

The railroad chose Miami-based Lennar as the buyer after a bidding process that attracted other suitors, said the person, who asked not to be named because the agreement is private. The homebuilder would also construct 1 million square feet (93,000 square meters) of offices and research and development space on the site, near Silicon Valley, and a roadway to a transit station, the person said.

Marshall Ames, a Lennar spokesman, declined to comment on the land deal. Aaron Hunt, a spokesman for Omaha, Nebraska-based Union Pacific, said in an e-mail that the “transaction will empower the city to move forward with its development plan for the property in collaboration with Lennar.”

The land is adjacent to Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)’s manufacturing plant on a former car-staging area used by the defunct Nummi venture between General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. Fremont is located on the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of San Jose. New-home prices in Alameda County rose last month to a median of $739,000, up 57 percent from a year earlier, DataQuick said.